Cultivated Meat from Cows: Plasma→Beef
Source Summary
Omeat, a company founded by a renowned tissue engineer and medical bioengineer, is taking a novel approach to producing cultured meat. While other companies completely eliminate traditionally farmed animals from their process, Omeat uses them, drawing plasma from the company’s own cattle to obtain the necessary cells and media to create their cultured meat. The process is significantly more cost effective than other approaches that rely on expensive products like fetal bovine serum or pharmaceuticals, and is still humane and sustainable. Omeat is able to “get all (their) ingredients at the cost that would be required to make meat at price parity,” claims the founder, overcoming a common cost barrier facing the industry. Now the company is focused on scaling, including plans to partner with existing cattle farmers for supply, with hopes of launching its ground beef product by 2025.
OUR TAKE
One of the primary challenges facing the alternative protein industry is cost of production. Lab-grown meat requires a technical and resource-intensive process, and without reasonable prices, these products will not reach a large market. While many players have expressed their intentions to achieve cost-competitiveness by 2030, Omeat aims to have their cultivated beef approach traditional beef costs by 2025. If they achieve this competitive price point, Omeat could overcome the stigma of cell-culture meat and be the first company to disrupt the cultivated meat industry.